Braman: Yes to recall leads to charter reform
By Norman Braman
From The Miami Herald
Last Sunday, Mayor Carlos Alvarez outlined in The Miami Herald what he perceives to be his successes, ending it by saying: “Attacks are easy. Solutions are hard.” On this we can agree.
With Miami-Dade’s record of financial recklessness, attacks are easy. The list of financial scandals, outrageous cost overruns and sheer waste is far too long to detail here. So let’s limit the discussion to only what Mayor Alvarez listed as his so-called accomplishments and what he cleverly omitted:
1. Metrorail expansion — 400 people at work. Miami-Dade Transit (MDT) had $182 million — half its annual budget — stripped by the federal government because of the county’s poor accounting and oversight. If even the federal government can’t stomach the waste and mismanagement, there’s a serious problem! And we still can’t get to the airport on Metrorail.
2. The Port of Miami tunnel –— 400 people at work. It will cost taxpayers more than $1 billion for a length less than a mile. The truckers, freight forwarders, cruise ship lines, the Sierra Club and the taxpayers all didn’t want the tunnel. It will tie up traffic for years.
3. Our new Marlins ballpark — 700 people at work. After interest payments, the stadium will cost every Miami-Dade County family of four about $4,000, when many of these families can’t even afford tickets to a game. The county bonds will cost an interest of up to 8.2 percent — a subprime loan for a baseball stadium. The Marlins, we now know, could have afforded more, but the mayor didn’t even ask for the team’s financial statement before awarding this $2.4 billion largess.
4. Airport improvements — 1,000 people employed. The costs skyrocketed from $3.9 billion to $6.3 billion. With interest payments, the airport soon will have operating expenses of more than $1 billion annually. Miami International Airport was already one of the most expensive airports for airlines. With these additional costs, more airlines and passengers will flee to Fort Lauderdale or West Palm Beach, leaving Miami-Dade taxpayers on the hook to make up losses.
Even using his math, Mayor Alvarez is bragging about 2,890 jobs at a cost of $1 billion in taxes — $346,020 per job. The real taxpayer cost may run $1 million or more per job.
5. The mayor claims he didn’t put the safety of the community at risk. This scare tactic disregards that a reduction in the budget of only slightly more than one-half of 1 percent would have balanced it and that no police officer or firefighter would have resigned had they not received pay increases. Instead, the mayor’s budget increased real-estate taxes by $178 million to give $132 million increases to unions and other county staffers, 3,300 of whom are compensated at $100,000 a year or more and 20 of whom in the manager’s office are compensated at $200,000 or more. His county manager is compensated at $425,000 — more than the U.S. president earns.
The mayor says that solutions are hard. So let me outline a few proposals that Victor M. Diaz, former chairman of the county’s charter review task force, and I have worked on. Each is included in what we are calling, “A Covenant With The People of Miami-Dade County for Reform of County Government.”
Among our suggestions:
• Reduce costs by reducing the number of county commissioners from 13 to nine, and have two run countywide to promote a regional focus.
• Impose term limits on commissioners, limit outside sources of income and bar them from lobbying the county after leaving office — in exchange for a reasonable salary.
• To reduce costs and increase voter participation, move the election dates to when other statewide candidates run.
• Reduce and restructure county operations, including capping public pensions’ costs and streamlining top-heavy bureaucracies.
• Restore accountability by eliminating non-charter restrictions on charter-changing initiatives and rules to recall officials.
• Allow the Charter Review Commission to submit proposed reforms directly to the voters, because it is clear that a majority of the County Commission will not allow it.
• Require public disclosure of lobbying.
We offer these suggestions for community discussion. To read in full the “Covenant with Miami-Dade” visit our website at www.recallmayoralvarez.org.
The recall election is now underway, with tens of thousands of mail-in ballots arriving at voters’ homes, and early ballot polling places opening on Monday. At stake is no less than the future direction of Miami-Dade County.
If Mayor Alvarez is retained in office, the message will be an acquittal of the charges of mismanagement of taxpayer funds, a green-light for ever-increasing taxes, and a near-permanent block of county charter changes that call for greater accountability.
If, however, voters say Yes to recalling Mayor Alvarez, March 15 will be the beginning of a new day for Miami-Dade. Yes to accountability. Yes to greater voter input and participation. Yes to the next steps of reforming our County Charter.
This journey of reform may be long, but the first step clearly is the recall of Mayor Alvarez to win back a county government we all can look to with pride.
Norman Braman is owner of the Braman automobile dealerships.
